I'm back after all this time! I realised I had a couple of chapters pre-prepared so here you go; in true Blue Peter fashion, here's one I made earlier.

Anyhoo, please review!

-Ela


What On Earth Do You Think You're Doing?

It was a bit of a shock, the change in temperature of the warm steamy bathroom to the cold study. Maybe Levi had a thing for coldness? Well I didn't, my hands and feet were always blue from poor circulation; they often felt so frozen I'd on occasion believe they might have actually fallen off because they were so numb. I'd have to check now and again to make sure they were still attached.

Tentatively I took a step towards a small book shelf that had been placed against the wall, not many books lining the different levels. The lack of books actually made sense now that I thought about it. In the olden days it was extremely expensive to make a book, with all the binding and making of the paper and such. I'd always thought that Levi's room would be filled to the brim with books for some reason - not that I thought of Levi's room in my spare time... well actually I did quite often... But anyway, it really did make sense, because when would he realistically have time to do some light reading? Scanning the spines, I saw different titles, all to do with manoeuvring gear or titans, except one on stars and constellations.

I pulled out the book on stars carefully, flicking through, reading and admiring the rough photos of stars. They didn't have enough leaps in science to see what we could see through a telescope. Especially with what the observatories at La Palma and Jodrell Bank could do, the little illustrations looked quite insignificant. Briefly I wondered when Levi would have had the chance to learn to read, what with all the 3DMG training he put himself through and learning to survive and live in the Underground. Thinking more deeply I realised that he couldn't have learnt to read while living in the Underground, there'd be no material to learn from, nothing to practice with - still that was assuming they were all illiterate down there. I decided that once I had gotten to know him a bit better (or rather he got to know me) I would ask him about the reading thing.

With a slight creak of floorboards and the sound of a swinging door, Levi stepped in. Turning my head a bit to see him in my peripheral vision I nodded quickly, acknowledging that he had entered.

"What on earth do you think you're doing?" Levi asked.

"I'm reading a book, reading is a thing you do either for enjoyment or to gather information on a certain subject." I tried pulling the towel down a bit, because it was just as short, if not shorter than Alois Trancy's booty shorts - for those not getting the reference, it was damn short, like just grazing the cheeks. So obviously I was a little self conscious.

Levi frowned, I just barely saw it. "Your hair is dripping on my floor."

Looking down I saw that I was in fact standing in a rather large puddle of water. "Oh! I'm sorry!" I sort of squeaked, for some reason today I didn't want to annoy Levi - too much.

Jumping back I started to pull my towel off to place it on the floor, once it was halfway off Levi shouted, "What do you think you're doing?!" Still facing away from him I realised what I had done, out of habit. When at home I would usually throw my towel down on the floor in a bid to absorb excess water that had splashed from the shower, or dripped from my hair.

Luckily for me I had been facing mainly away from Levi and only managed to drop the towel to my waist, so all he could really see was my back. I mean he had seen me in underwear so, what was this really? Just a bare back, nothing special.

Quickly I gathered the towel up, hastily wrapping it around my body - I really was cold now, but on a positive note the embarrassment had brought some warm blood up to the surface, temporarily warming me.

"Ugh clothes?" I asked turning to face Levi, hastily returning the book to the dingy shelf.

Levi, holding my new set of training clothes walked off in the opposite direction.

"Oi! Where are you going?!" I hop-skipped over towards him, trying to reach him before he magically disappeared like a rabbit in a waist coat, late for an important date.

Opening a door he stepped in, I followed quickly. "Here are your clothes," Levi said placing the garments atop his slightly grand, clean camp bed. "I'm going for a shower." He quickly gathered his new set of clothes from his drawers - everything was folded neatly - obviously he had a problem with neatness. I know I'm fairly messy, that much is true and it was even a factor that ended up getting me here, but still. Any normal non-robot, non-'I have no purpose to life' person lived like this. It's common knowledge that everyone has a chair they just throw clothes onto, the 'used but not dirty clothes' chair. No such thing existed in Levi's quarters.

He stepped out of the room saying as he left, "Be changed by the time I'm done, and no snooping around my room, or you can get changed in the middle of the corridor and not my rooms." with a click of the door he was gone.

At that point I had the chance to really look around the place.

Walking over to the bed I picked up the clothes and started to change. The bed was just a camp bed, much like the rest of the cadet's except bigger. There was one chest of drawers to the left of the bed, a wicker basket for dirty washing and a small, old mirror held up on the wall. The room looked off. It was about the same size as my room back at home, yet there were only three things in here. A bed, chest of draws, a mirror. I realised suddenly that back home I had been living in relative luxury and had never really thought about it.

After slipping on the uniform's boots I stepped away from the bed. 'No snooping?' I thought, 'Forget no snooping - this might be the only time I get the chance, might as well take advantage.' Rather quickly I checked under the bed, in case he stored anything under there. Nothing. I then proceeded to the chest of drawers, catching my reflection in the warped mirror briefly - good gods I looked tired. Each drawer was opened in turn, revealing just more and more clothing.

I HAD FOUND IT.

I HAD FOUND HIS STASH OF CRAVATS.

Reaching into the drawer I delicately pulled one out, eyeing it up in the dull sunlight streaming through the window. Particles of dust danced around me in the brightness, as I stared at the piece of cloth, I spared a thought to poor Levi who would have his feather duster out in a heart-beat. He'd probably find a way to kill the dust before it settled, somehow, using his ninja skills.

Feeling slightly cheeky I stood up, glaring at my neck in the mirror's reflection, trying to get the cravat to look just like Levi's. At a certain point I gave up, realising Levi would be out of the shower soon. My eyes skimmed back up to my face in the mirror - I really did look tired. I sat down on his bed, allowing my eyes to drift shut as I contemplated the world and all its weirdness.